Return to Tamaran
by S. Giovanni
Summary: Starfire has recieved a message from a messenger of Galfore saying she needs to train with a guy named Eriand'r so she can save Tamaran from an evil force. She, unfortunately, has no clue who Eriand'r is. Here we begin the story on a cloudy, rainy day.
1. Chapter 1

**Return to Tamaran**

First story in the Wildfire Trilogy

Chapter 1

It was a dark and stormy day. The sort of day no villain wants to go out, and the sort of day no hero can go out in. Starfire sat, alone, looking out the window into the darkness that unfolded before her as she contemplated the message she had been delivered and her time at Tamaran. She had heard that Tamaran was in trouble from the holographic messanger, and was also told that her powers were uncontrolled for the most part. She was told to seek Eriand'r, but who was Eriand'r, where was he, and how could he help her?  
"Starfire, what's up?" asked Cyborg.  
"Nothing is up. Why do you ask?"  
"You've been acting like Raven all day, assuming it even _is_ day."  
"I have been thinking about something."  
"What is it?"  
Starfire knew she couldn't hide anything from Cyborg for too long, he was like an older brother to her and, for those girls out there who have an older brother, you know they can seem stupid at times, they can get on your nerves at times, but they always figure things out when things get bad for you and that you can't keep a secret from them for long.  
"I've got a message this morning. I have to go to Tamaran soon, but I have to do it after I have learned to control my powers."  
"I thought your powers were already under control."  
"They're not."  
"Well, we have an expert training facility so you can learn to control them."  
"I know, but I need to find Eriand'r, whoever that is, and train with him. That's what I've been told, anyway."  
"And how do you know this Airee, uh, Erin, um, this guy even exists?"  
"I don't know. I suppose I have to take the word of the messanger."  
"Well, okay. We'll track this guy down and find out where he is."  
"He might not be on Earth."  
"We'll just have to try."  
With that, Cyborg turned on the TV. Beastboy came in at that moment.  
"Hey, Cy, wanna play the Gamestation?"  
"Later, I'm kind of busy."  
"With what?"  
"Um," he glanced at Starfire, and she looked back at him with a glance that said her thoughts, and he looked back at Beastboy. "Er, I'm trying to find the movie channel. They're showing 'The Terminator' with no commercials in 5 minutes."  
"Okay, whatever."  
"Oh, could make sure no one comes in? The doors always distract me."  
"Okay! You got it!"  
Beastboy ran out of the room and closed the doors behind him.  
"So, let's find Erin."  
"Eriand'r."  
"Right, right." He switched the screen to the tracking screen."Spell the name."  
"Um, E-R-I-A-N-D-apostrophe-R."  
"Let's see...this dude's going under the name Wildfire. He lives in the poorer part of Viper City. I'd get going if I were you, he won't be easy to find."  
"Of course. Bye Cyborg. If anyone asks after I leave, I'm visiting Tamaran."  
Starfire flew to her room. She quickly came out with a suitcase and flew off.


	2. Chapter 2

_Okay, I realized after I created Chapter 1 I forgot a disclaimer. Here it is: I do not own the Teen Titans. I only own Viper City, and even that was an idea brought to me by a friend, and I only own Eriand'r. Julius and Vern are available to the public. All rights reserved. Thank you._

Starfire knew Viper City didn't take kindly to heroes and also that it was raining, so she put on a red cloak she brought along and walked into a pub nearby. When she walked in, she saw Slade sitting at the bar, a drink in hand. She walked over to him, past the two shady figures having an arm wrestle, past the demons having a drinking contest, and past the cloaked waitress serving 2 bottles of a drink she didn't even want to think about to Red-X and Kitten. She sat down next to Slade and attempted to disguise her voice so it was unrecognizable to anyone.  
"Hello."  
"Good afternoon, Star."  
"Call me Kory."  
"Okay. Good afternoon, Kory. What are you doing here?"  
"I have come to find someone. Do you know a person by the name of Wildfire?"  
"Sh! Not so loud. He's one of your type. So, your looking for Eriand'r, aren't you?"  
"Yes."  
"He lives on Julius and Vern, that's all I know. Jinx works down there herself, at the Hive and Comb. Tell her I sent you."  
Starfire nodded and walked off. Slade finished his drink, paid the waitress, and left, turning down Julius and Vern.

Starfire walked into the pub and saw Jinx serving a daiquiri to Brother Blood, who was wearing a birds-of-paradise shirt (gyee!) Jinx walked off.  
"God, Blood is so tacky."  
"Excuse me," said Starfire in her disguised voice.  
"Yeah, what?" asked Jinx, not recognizing Starfire. After all, Starfire _was_ wearing a blue t-shirt, jeans, and had her hair in braids.  
"Jinx, could I talk to you for a minute?"  
"How do you know who I am?"  
"I'll explain everything later. Let us just go out and talk for a moment."  
"Okay. HEY, LIGHT, I'M GOIN' ON BREAK FOR A BIT!"  
"OKAY, JUST GET BACK IN AN HOUR!"  
Starfire and Jinx left. Starfire instantly pulled her into an ally and took out her braids.  
"Starfire?"  
"Yes, it's me. I need to know where I could find Wildfire."  
"Oh, he shouldn't be too hard. Don't search him out, he'll find you. He lives in an apartment not far from here."  
"Okay, thanks."  
"Oh, and Starfire?"  
"Hm?"  
"Tell Raven I want my necklace back."  
"I'll do it. Oh, and Slade says hi."  
Starfire put her hair back into the braids and walked away. Jinx went through the alley and came out in an apartment complex on the other side. She pulled out a phone.  
"Dr. Light, I'm checking out today. I'll do over-time later, but there's something _really _important I have to do today."  
She put away the phone and walked deeper in.


	3. Chapter 3

Starfire walked around to an apartment complex. She walked up to the main office.  
"Excuse me," she asked, once again in her disguised voice, to the lady at the counter, "Is there anyone in your records who went by 'Wildfire?'"  
The lady continued to work on the paperwork she was working at, almost as diligently as Robin.  
"Wildfire? There's no one here named Wildfire, but we have a guy who wrote down the nickname 'Eriand'r.'"  
"That was another name he went by," said Starfire, inwardly pleased but outwardly showing no emotion other than a small smile.  
"Then you're probably talking about Kermit. He used to live around here, but he moved out due to payment troubles and his neighbors downstairs. He gave us his new address to us because he couldn't pay the rent. We send bills to him once a month."  
"Where does he live?"  
"He lives in that forest just outside of Jump," said the woman, finally looking up, "Why, do you know him?"  
"Let's just say I need to meet him.  
"Okay. Well, that's where he lives."  
"Okay, thanks for your help."  
Starfire turned and walked out, a smile on her face. The lady shrugged and went back to her stack of paper work.  
Starfire went behind a tree and swiftly changed into her usual outfit and took out her braids. She flew off, suitcase in hand, and flew a rather uneventful flight to the forest where Thunder and Lightning accidentally started a fire, and that Robin thought he saw Slade when he had the dust tricking his senses. She landed, facing the Tower, oblivious to what was happening there.

"Cyborg, do you know where Starfire is?" asked Robin, cocking his head.  
"She's visiting Tamaran," said Cyborg.  
"WHAT?" Robin nearly jumped clear out of his seat when he heard that.  
"She says she's only visiting, man, chill!"  
"Remember last time she said she was going to Tamaran?"  
"Yeah, but don't you remember? Blackfire's been banished!"  
"How do you know Blackfire didn't just come back?"  
"How would she do that?"  
"Bargains, threats, armies, the list goes on."  
"Dude, you gotta chill, man! She didn't pack enough to be going for good."  
Robin wasn't pleased, though. He stormed off, and Cyborg just shrugged and went to the garage to work on the T-car.

Starfire turned, walking deeper into the forest. She eventually got hungry and stopped for some food. She unpacked under a tree and started to eat.  
"Hello!"  
Starfire whirled around to see a boy, or, rather, something with the physique of a boy, but was wearing white paint ball armor, a white mask, and was holding a gun.  
"Hello, there!"  
"Having some food, I see, hm?" said the mysterious boy, taking off the mask and suit and putting down the gun.  
"Yes. I was quite hungry."  
"Would you mind if I joined you?"  
"No, not at all."  
"Okay."  
The boy sat down and took a small portion of the food. He bit into it.  
"Blech!"  
He threw the food back and continued to look through the food. Starfire grabbed him by the shirt.  
"Now, please, restrain yourself. You're not going to eat everything I brought. I have a long trip and need to find someone who can help me."  
"Help, you say?"  
"Yes, I'm looking for a great fighter."  
"Ah, then you seek Eriand'r, no?"  
"You can take me to Wildfire?"  
"Yes. But first, we must eat."  
"Take me to Wildfire."  
"Fighters need food too, you know. We'll find him after we eat."  
"Look, just take me to Wildfire."  
"No. If you're going to be rude to me, I won't take you."  
"Fine, I shall find him on my own. Good bye, you strange person."  
She packed up her food and got up. The boy scratched his head, blinked his green eyes once, and slicked back his orange hair, which went right back onto his face. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a communicator. Starfire came back to grab something she forgot and saw the boy contacting Galfore.  
"I will not train her. She is too impatient."  
"Was I any different?"  
"She is too old."  
"You're forgetting another rather old apprentice of yours."  
"Blackfire? Bah. Bah! She went to the dark side, if you don't remember."  
"I do. But I was talking about me."  
The boy sighed.  
"Alright. I shall train her. Starfire, are you willing to become more patient?" he asked, not even looking around.  
"Yes, Wildfire, I am more than willing!"  
"Okay. First of all, call me Kermit. I like it better."  
"Okay, Kermit."

The next two weeks were harsh for Starfire. Her attempts at controlling her emotions were challenging, and if she failed to control them, Kermit would hit her with a rod he carried with him.  
"No. You must listen to what I say. Follow your emotions and you, like your sister, shall go to the dark side," he would say.  
Eventually, though, Starfire's feelings and emotions were honed a bit better, and Kermit hit her less often. One day, he couldn't hit her at all. She had emotion, but she could control them much better. Eventually, Kermit got harsher, distracting her by telling her meaner and meaner things to get her goat.  
"Starfire, quiet! If you make a sound, Raven's meditating will be disturbed."  
"Starfire, hurry. Robin's thinking you died and has moved on."  
Starfire, however, was doing exactly what he told her not to do, and Kermit knew she had progressed quite well.


	4. Chapter 4

Well, Starfire was ready to fight. Kermit had put her through the course, and she was now quite capable of going back to Tamaran. However, she wasn't able to leave just yet.  
"Starfire, remember, when we go to Tamaran, things may be strange. I've been there a couple weeks before you came, it's not the same."  
"What do you mean?"  
"I mean that the planet's changed. It's not going to be easy to comprehend what happened. Just don't expect Tamaran to be as you saw it last."  
"I won't."  
"Good. Now, hang on. I'm gonna go get a few of my friends."  
Kermit waved and flew off.

A few hours later, Kermit came back, soot-covered and sweaty but otherwise perfectly fine. To the right of him were a giant wooden boy with a blue cape and hat, a staff-wielding boy with the ears and tail of a wolf, Jinx, a girl in a leather jacket, sunglasses, and blue jeans, and what Starfire figured to be a male version of Raven. Kermit went to her and stood next to her and pointed to each of them from left to right.  
"Hey, Starfire," Jinx said.  
"Hi!"  
"I take it you know Jinx?" Wildfire asked.  
"I do. Who are the others?"  
"Oh, they are Geno, Tiamet, Aelita, and Blackbird. Of course, everyone here is going to be contributing to the team. Aelita, tell her how we're getting to Tamaran."  
The girl in the leather jacket stepped forward. She pulled out a cell-phone and dialed a quick number. She then aimed it at the ground nearby and hit another button, and the floor hatched open. A ship spiraled up to the ground.  
"This," she said, "Is the S.S. Ulrich. It's perhaps the fastest ship in the galaxy. The only problem is that it's missing a weapons system. We don't intend to fight in it, but, likely as not, we'll wind up doing so somewhere along the way."  
"Seeing as the Ulrich is so fast, there's another catch," said Wildfire as he stepped forward. "In order to reach full speed, it can't increase in weight by one ton. Thankfully, combined we don't weigh nearly as much, but if you're planning on packing, pack light."  
"Understood."  
"One more problem, it smells like rotting fish in a skunk's den."

"Cyborg," Raven asked as she approached him, "Why's Starfire going to Tamaran?"  
"Something to do with Viper City."  
"I'll keep it secret, but of all places Viper City? What could she possibly be doing there?"  
"She's meeting someone there."  
"Who could she possibly meet in Viper City? It's just a bunch of villains in hiding."  
"Apparently, there's someone there who can help her control her powers or something, I know about as much on this as you."  
"Okay, we're going to Viper. You're gonna have to be careful, though, more so than me."  
"Yeah, I know. We'll both need to be careful, though."  
"Right. Get packing. Beastboy and Robin aren't to know what's going on."  
"How'll we trick them into that?"  
"Trust me," she said as she left the room."

Well, the ship was nearly ready to go, except for the fact that it still smelled horrible. The wooden boy walked up to Starfire, who was busily sitting down, looking over the city.  
"Hey, Starfire. What're you thinking about?"  
"Hi, Geno. I'm thinking about my friends back home. I may never see them again."  
"You'll see them soon, don't worry. If anyone needs to worry about never seeing friends again, it's me."  
"Why? What happened?"  
"It's a long story, and I'd rather not go into details. Let's just say being friends with a hero, a prince, a princess, and a king isn't exactly the best thing to be."  
"Why's that?"  
"You'll lose 'em sooner or later. HEY, TI, HOW'S THE SHIP COMING ALONG?"  
"Stinky as usual!" he said, leaping out of the ship. "Honestly, haven't those rejects we bought this from heard of a vacuum?"  
"Moldy old fries?"  
"Moldy old sandwich chunks!" he said as helowered his ears. "I'm shocked they didn't keel over in here!"  
"Ew. Need a hand?"  
"Need a miracle's more like it."


End file.
